Article/Document:

AIAA Committee Looks at UFO Problem

Summary: The Committee has made a careful examination of the present state of the UFO issue and has concluded that the controversy cannot be resolved without further study in a quantitative scientific manner and that it deserves the attention of the engineering and scientific community.

The Committee has made a careful examination of the present state of the UFO issue and has concluded that the controversy cannot be resolved without further study in a quantitative scientific manner and that it deserves the attention of the engineering and scientific community.

UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) Phenomena in this country have generated controversy, arising from observations which appear to span a wide range of the reliability spectrum. The scientific and engineering community, which includes, in particular, those who are trained in applying the scientific method to observational data, has not evidenced an overwhelming interest in the problem. Neither, however, has the UFO problem died on the vine. Therefore, in the recent past, more systematic studies have been made by some scientific investigators. So far as one can tell, such studies have not produced clear-cut conclusions not erased controvery.

Under these circumstances the AIAA, about a year ago, asked two of its Technical Committees - namely, the Committee on Atmospheric Environment and the Committee on Space and Atmospheric Physics, to consider the formation of a focal point for this problem area, which, by its very nature, lies in the sphere of interest of the AIAA community. Accordingly, these two TCs established a Subcommittee on the UFO Problem with the following membership:

This group has made its own objective investigation of the subject and has now issued the statement above, which speaks for itself. The Committee plans to develop certain recommendations and to give some insight into its reasoning to the AIAA readership in future issues of A/A.